CM questions and related Roland Spot Color q.

I'm still wrapping my head around color management. I realize there always needs to be a working color space unless its a device link. Right now in my shop there has been no color management, we've strictly used Roland Spot Colors and VS300's. Now I came onboard rather later and with some research I figured out the obvious,we need some kind of color management solution especially since we are expanding to different kinds of printers, materials etc.

The first question I have is about semantics. The "target" profiles in VersaWorks are the "input" profiles correct? (Sort of like ONYX). These are our working color space profiles right? To me this means that the embedded document profiles either have to override the input profiles, or vice versa, or interact in some way that is not clear to me.

The second question I have is that the Roland Spot Color system is really just a cmyk table isn't it? It's still affected by whatever working space -> output profiles you use.... So what working space profile is required by Roland Spot Colors? RolandSignCMYK? SWOP? etc.

I'm still wrapping my head around color management. I realize there always needs to be a working color space unless its a device link. Right now in my shop there has been no color management, we've strictly used Roland Spot Colors and VS300's. Now I came onboard rather later and with some research I figured out the obvious,we need some kind of color management solution especially since we are expanding to different kinds of printers, materials etc.

The first question I have is about semantics. The "target" profiles in VersaWorks are the "input" profiles correct? (Sort of like ONYX). These are our working color space profiles right? To me this means that the embedded document profiles either have to override the input profiles, or vice versa, or interact in some way that is not clear to me.

The second question I have is that the Roland Spot Color system is really just a cmyk table isn't it? It's still affected by whatever working space -> output profiles you use.... So what working space profile is required by Roland Spot Colors? RolandSignCMYK? SWOP? etc.

Finally are there any books recommend for color management?

Thanks guys! I'm so happy I found this site!

Click to expand...

The spot colors on the Roland are basically CMYK spot swatches, but the RIP interprets them and the colors are much better on the output. Yellow is a prime example - when using the swatch you won't see the green tint that is common.

As far as profilse - I am no expert and only have our shop marginally color-managed (as much as I hate to admit that).

The output profiles you assign in Versaworks are compensating for the material differences, unless you have set up special ones to deal with special color situations outside that. I don't know what program you design in, but I use Illustrator. In Illy, I use an RGB color space and do not assign any profile to the actual file I RIP outside of Versaworks. Photoshop is a different story - but I don't try to match to my output profile there either and my colors are generally spot on.

There are some real profile pros on the board that can probably do a much better job than me in explaining how it all works together!

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